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  • Football

    Is there any connection between football and chess? The gridiron is the board, a front line of defenders, pieces that can go around or leap over, and alternating moves.

    I'm presently researching rugby-football when Balmy Beach won the grey Cup in 1927. The President of the Balmy Beach Club, William Cawkell, was also the President of the Toronto Chess Club.


    Teaching chess to athletes can help their mental game:

    https://londonchessconference.com/chess-and-football/

    Apparently, there will be chess playing outside BMO Field in the pre-game of the Argo-Tiger Cats game tomorrow. Then the chessplayers will sit together to watch the big game. It's alot cheaper than the ACC/Scotiabank Arena.

  • #2
    Originally posted by Erik Malmsten View Post
    Is there any connection between football and chess? The gridiron is the board, a front line of defenders, pieces that can go around or leap over, and alternating moves.

    I'm presently researching rugby-football when Balmy Beach won the grey Cup in 1927. The President of the Balmy Beach Club, William Cawkell, was also the President of the Toronto Chess Club.


    Teaching chess to athletes can help their mental game:

    https://londonchessconference.com/chess-and-football/

    Apparently, there will be chess playing outside BMO Field in the pre-game of the Argo-Tiger Cats game tomorrow. Then the chessplayers will sit together to watch the big game. It's alot cheaper than the ACC/Scotiabank Arena.
    Erik, you posted this 2 years ago, and I joined ChessTalk about 2 weeks after this post. I had heard about this post from another regular poster on ChessTalk at the time.

    I didn't reply to it at the time because I was just getting started on something to do with football and chess. Now it is 2 years later, and I have something, that is to say a designed product. Specifically, I have developed a way to play football (North American, could be NFL, college, or CFL) using a regular chess board and pieces.

    Now, as you know chess is a pure skill game. But football like (almost?) all sports is not pure skill. There is luck involved: weather conditions, field conditions, and too many other variables to mention. So I have to mention that in my variant there is luck involved, and it takes the form of rolling dice... BUT.... when making decisions, the probabilities of various dice rolls is a factor. So the players are making decisions based on probabilities.

    What I have is a "final" version of the game. That is to say, the final version of the rules, plus some games that have been played for testing. I don't know exactly what to do with it. It's fascinating, because it TOTALLY REPURPOSES THE CHESS SET. The pieces move on the board just as they do in chess, but there is no check or mate or anything else resembling chess at all. Even the King can be captured and reinstated back onto the playing field (the board). The purpose of the game is to score touchdowns along with converts, score field goals, and score safeties (U.S. football only, for CFL it is singles and a different way of scoring them). And just as a football game is timed, this game is limited to a certain duration also, and can go into overtime if tied after the regular amount of moves.

    Maybe this isn't what you meant 2 years ago Erik, but this is what I was working on at the time (as a hobby that is). and it is now complete. I just have to figure out what to do with the whole idea. Maybe nothing.

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    • #3
      Scoring by running, passing, or kicking. The bigger pieces are blockers. Lots of time between moves. Requires drinking weak American beer. Is there a half-time with marching bands and cheerleaders?

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      • #4
        Football broadcasting commentators refer regularly to football as being a 'chess match'. It's an intriguing connection, given the 'scripted' nature of football plays in the North American sense. Chess is also scripted, to a certain extent. Then you have players with different specialized functions, just as we have chess pieces with different moves and powers!

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Erik Malmsten View Post
          Scoring by running, passing, or kicking. The bigger pieces are blockers. Lots of time between moves. Requires drinking weak American beer. Is there a half-time with marching bands and cheerleaders?
          The game is divided into 4 quarters, so yes there could be a halftime, and it could have anything you want including commercials! lol Miller Lite... it's less filling! It's great tasting! lol

          To give a general idea, each chess move is a "play". Each side gets 40 moves, so 40 plays, 10 plays per quarter. Every play has the potential to score points, and any piece except the King can score points, and the "bigger" pieces are more likely to score points than the Pawns. In fact the Pawns are more like the blockers, but even the Pawns can score points. Pieces can be captured like in chess, but they can also be brought back on your 1st rank and doing so for any piece would be one of your 40 moves. Pawns, once captured, cannot be brought back, so as the game progresses the board gets cleared of Pawns, but almost always there are 3 or 4 still left at the end of the game.

          Once I figured out the rules so that games had a nice range of scoring -- some low scoring, some high scoring games -- I actually had a web development company give me a quote on what it would cost to have this developed into a web site, complete with 3D graphics. I knew it would be a big number, and yes, it was. Too big for me, for sure. But the company was gung ho once they saw the rules, the CEO was really into it and he said his entire team (which were bound by an NDA) were "ecstatic" at the chance to develop this. That's when I told them, sorry, I don't have that kind of money that I can free up right now. I have kids who need to go to college soon. I asked if they could invest, do some of the work in return for a % of ownership, but they haven't done that before and were reluctant. I guess "ecstatic" has its limits! lol

          The real interesting thing about it is that each chess piece of your team could have a property sheet that gives it certain qualities. Some pieces could be good defensively, some good offensively, varying depending on things like weather or what kind of player they are matched up against. You as the move chooser could be coaching your team, trying to use each player optimally and taking into account the position at the time. But I think that gives this game great potential as a web site. Without the property sheets for each piece, the game would be more suited for OTB play.

          Definitely has some potential, and I just love that it creates a whole new game using chess pieces and board. All you need for the OTB game is the rules and the charts for dice rolls.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Frank Dixon View Post
            Football broadcasting commentators refer regularly to football as being a 'chess match'. It's an intriguing connection, given the 'scripted' nature of football plays in the North American sense. Chess is also scripted, to a certain extent. Then you have players with different specialized functions, just as we have chess pieces with different moves and powers!
            Yes, I've heard commentators use that too Frank. But really, football is much more dependent on luck and chance than chess is. Every single play is different each time it is tried.

            And boy, some of the decisions that get made in football! The dumbest one I remember seeing was the famous Super Bowl ending play a few years ago, Seattle against New England. Seattle had driven the ball down to about the New England 2 yard line, time for one last play. Marshawn Lynch had just rushed on 2 consecutive plays for multiple yards each play. He was in BEAST MODE! And what did they try on the last play? A pass to a player who was just standing on the goal line. A New England player knocked that player aside and intercepted the pass, game over. Lynch had to have been enraged at not being given the ball. He left the team during the off-season, went to another team. Seattle has never been the same since. Dumbest decision ever in the NFL, imo.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Pargat Perrer View Post

              Yes, I've heard commentators use that too Frank. But really, football is much more dependent on luck and chance than chess is. Every single play is different each time it is tried.

              And boy, some of the decisions that get made in football! The dumbest one I remember seeing was the famous Super Bowl ending play a few years ago, Seattle against New England. Seattle had driven the ball down to about the New England 2 yard line, time for one last play. Marshawn Lynch had just rushed on 2 consecutive plays for multiple yards each play. He was in BEAST MODE! And what did they try on the last play? A pass to a player who was just standing on the goal line. A New England player knocked that player aside and intercepted the pass, game over. Lynch had to have been enraged at not being given the ball. He left the team during the off-season, went to another team. Seattle has never been the same since. Dumbest decision ever in the NFL, imo.
              Great recollection! I remember slumping to the floor in agony, throwing chips into the air - LOL - I so much wanted/expected Beast Mode to blast through for glory (and yes, Patriots' demise lol)

              Speaking back to Frank's point, it happens in all kind of sports, the commentator saying "It's like a chess match out there". Like in boxing and MMA. It makes me laugh and yell at the TV lol.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Pargat Perrer View Post

                Yes, I've heard commentators use that too Frank. But really, football is much more dependent on luck and chance than chess is. Every single play is different each time it is tried.

                And boy, some of the decisions that get made in football! The dumbest one I remember seeing was the famous Super Bowl ending play a few years ago, Seattle against New England. Seattle had driven the ball down to about the New England 2 yard line, time for one last play. Marshawn Lynch had just rushed on 2 consecutive plays for multiple yards each play. He was in BEAST MODE! And what did they try on the last play? A pass to a player who was just standing on the goal line. A New England player knocked that player aside and intercepted the pass, game over. Lynch had to have been enraged at not being given the ball. He left the team during the off-season, went to another team. Seattle has never been the same since. Dumbest decision ever in the NFL, imo.
                Seattle had driven the ball down to New England half a yard. 18 inches and they didn't give the ball to Marshawn Lynch!! I use to saw a video when Malcolm Butler practice this play 2 time in regular season without success but the third time he recognized the play and he intercepted the football! 2 plays before, Seattle had a miracle catch and it seem that New Englang will lose a third Super Bowl because of an incredible catch.

                Other dumbest decision: Super Bowl New England - Philadelphia. The same Malcolm Butler was left in the bench when he takes 98% of the defensive plays in all the season. If the guy arrive late in a practice, don't punish the whole team! It was the second worst decision of Belichick after let go Tom Brady...

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